


Untouchable Girl: Agent of SHIELD

by ElrondsScribe



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-14 06:19:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5732590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElrondsScribe/pseuds/ElrondsScribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Literally a crazy idea I had that I decided to post online just to see what kind of response it would get. Bella goes through Terrigenesis and becomes Inhuman. Post New Moon and just before the beginning of Eclipse; probably will not be compliant with Breaking Dawn if I ever write this story to that point. Post Season 2 of Agents of SHIELD and just before Season 3. AU, obviously.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Incident

They told me it was all the fault of the fish oil vitamins. Who would have thought, with all the ways that I was already tangled up with the alter-natural, that my ultimate path to where I am now would begin with something so mundane as vitamins?

* * *

It was two weeks after Jacob gave me back my motorcycle. I was still grounded, of course. That meant nothing to Edward, of course, only that the only time of day I didn’t see him was during the afternoons just after school. I couldn’t see Jacob at all, and that sucked.

 The fish oil vitamins, like everything else, were part of Charlie’s way of checking up on me, after the mess I had put him through before abruptly leaving for Italy. I wasn’t happy about any of it, but at breakfast one morning I saw how tired and haggard he looked and how he kept peeking at me from the corners of his eyes. I suddenly felt terrible for him - what must it be like, to come home and find your teen daughter has gone to Italy without saying anything?

 I got up, walked over to the pantry, grabbed the bottle of vitamins, and gulped one down with a swallow of milk.

 Charlie looked up when I put down the glass. “Look, Cha- Dad,” I said. “I’m sorry, okay? I just - I really can take care of -”

 But Charlie was staring at my feet. “Bells?” he asked in a voice that tried to be calm and wasn’t.

 So I did what I think anyone might have done. I looked down.

 Something was happening - some strange, back-like black stuff was sprouting up from the floor over and around my feet and ankles. Nor did it stop there, but it rapidly spread up my legs toward my waist.

 “Uh, D-Dad -” I began to panic, and tried to bend down to reach my legs. But there was no time even to bend over, for the black cocoon was over my hips now and spreading up my chest and back. “Dad! -”

 Charlie had sprung to his feet, and was trying to pull the stuff off my body by force. But whatever it was made of, it wouldn’t come off, and my limbs wouldn’t budge. Then, almost before I had time to think, the cocoon had enveloped my arms and my neck, and in another moment had surrounded my head and covered my face.

 Oddly enough, I found it was actually quite comfortable inside the cocoon. Although I couldn’t move, I didn’t feel the need to. Even breathing seemed for the moment completely unnecessary.

 And then, after a few seconds, the cocoon broke. I felt it cracking around my fingers and my ears first, and just as quickly as it had appeared, the whole cocoon crumbled and fell off in pieces.

 I felt hot, my skin was tingling, my stomach churned, and something about the air around me felt somehow different even though everything looked the same. Everything, of course, except for the floor around my feet, which was strewn with the strange, dark stuff.

 Instantly Charlie’s arms were around me. “Bella?” he gasped. “Bella, are you okay?”

 “I’m fine,” I panted, trying to steady myself. “I’m fine, Dad, really -”

 Someone banged on the door, and Charlie looked around irritably. “Who the hell -”

 I sighed. “It’s probably Edward.”

 His face tightened, but he went to the door. It was indeed him, and my racing heart slowed a little at the sight of his bronze hair and honey-colored eyes, even though anxiety was written in every line of his slender figure.

 “What are you doing here?” huffed Charlie.

 I leaned sideways so that Edward could see me around Charlie’s shoulder. “Hey,” I said.

 Charlie whirled around, scowling, but Edward had already relaxed. “I’m sorry, Chief Swan,” he said politely. “I won’t bother you again.” And he withdrew with a momentary glance back at me.

 In spite of all my protests, Charlie took me to the hospital. My only comfort was that I was lucky enough to have Carlisle come to look at me after a nurse had taken my blood pressure and temperature.

 The moment he came into the room, I knew something was wrong. He was staring at me and trying not to stare, and as he came up to the bed he hesitated.

 “Carlisle?” I said. “What is it?”

 He glanced at his papers, up at the monitor beside my hospital bed, and then back down at me. “Bella,” he said slowly. “I don’t know what’s happened to you, only that it’s nothing I’ve ever encountered before.”

 “What do you mean?” I asked anxiously.

 “Your body seems to be surrounded by a layer of some kind of energy signature that’s sending all our systems haywire - it’s very hard to get any kind of electronic reading on you. All we can tell for certain is that your heartbeat is easily _three times_ higher than it should be.”

 I blinked. “Does that mean something’s wrong with me? Do I have to tell Charlie goodbye and -”

 “All it means is that we can’t say much of anything for certain,” said Carlisle. “I’m afraid you’re going to be here for a little longer than anticipated.”

 “Do I _have_ to?!” I moaned.

 “Yes, you have to,” said Carlisle firmly.

 Charlie, of course, was less than satisfied with what Carlisle had to say. “What do you mean, _you don’t know what’s wrong?_ ” I heard him shout.

 “I’m sorry, Chief Swan,” said Carlisle, his voice a barely audible murmur. “We need time to run more tests. Right now we’re unable even to ascertain her temperature.”

 Charlie rubbed his forehead. “Do whatever you have to do,” he said. “Just make sure nothing happens to her.” I heard his voice catch. “She’s all I’ve got.”

 Then he came around the curtain and sat by my bed and refused to leave for hours. Edward and Alice came later, much to his displeasure, and they also refused to go anywhere. Alice kept on peering anxiously at me, as if she expected me to disappear at any moment.

 As if I wasn’t already uncomfortable enough, half the kids from school dropped by in ones and twos. Angela and Jessica stayed longest of them all, Jessica to talk my ear off and Angela because that was just her way.

 But worst of all was when Jacob showed up. Charlie was still there, and so were Edward and Alice, and of course Jacob couldn’t hide his scowl when he came in. Edward, however, made no protest at his entrance. Alice just quietly threw up her hands and muttered something under her breath (I knew this because I saw her lips moving at vampire speed).

 “Jake?” I asked tentatively. I hadn’t seen him since he’d confronted me and Edward about the treaty, and he had never returned any of my calls.

 His scowl vanished as he looked at me. “Bella,” he said, and a multitude of expressions flitted over his face. “You - you smell different,” he blurted out.

 I blinked at him. “Wh-what?”

 Jake shook his head, looking perplexed and angry and miserable all at the same time. “Sorry,” he grumbled, with a dark look at the two Cullens.

 Charlie gaped at him. Edward cocked his head, as if hearing something in Jacob’s mind that he found interesting enough to distract him from wanting to tear Jacob’s head off (I had _not_ forgotten about the conversation we’d had!).

 I turned and looked at all three of them. “Can you please give us a minute?”

 

Charlie scowled. “Five minutes, Bella. I mean it,” he said, and stomped off. Edward and Alice followed even more reluctantly.

 I stared unhappily at Jake. Jake stared accusingly at me.

 I caved first. “Just say it already!” I huffed. “I know you hate me, okay?”

 His expression changed. “Bella, how could you think that?!”

 “You don’t?” I asked doubtfully. Edward had said as much, but . . .

 “No!” cried Jacob, and abruptly he stopped and shut his eyes briefly. “No,” he repeated in a quieter, more broken voice. “I don’t hate you - I just -” He flung up his hands. “ _Why_ , Bella? Why the bloodsuckers? Why do you have to be one of them?”

 I recoiled. “Okay, Jake, listen up,” I said angrily. “You can hate me as much as you want. That’s up to you. But,” I held up my hand to stop his protest. “but understand that you are _never,_ under _any_ circumstances, allowed to call the Cullens _bloodsuckers_ again, am I clear?”

 Jacob huffed and puffed. “Fine, the _vampires_ ,” he grumbled.

 “And while we’re on it,” I continued. “We still haven’t discussed your blatant misuse of the terms of the treaty and how it applies to me -”

 “ _I_ didn’t make the treaty, Bella!” Jacob shouted. “I just -”

 “Careful,” I said. “You’ll be breaking the treaty yourself in a minute if you don’t lower your voice.”

 Jacob clenched his fists, shut his eyes, and trembled for a full five seconds. “I didn’t come to talk about the treaty,” he said through clenched teeth. “I just came to put my eyes on you.”

 “Who told you anything was wrong with me?” I grumbled. “You know I don’t like getting hospital visits.”

 “My dad told me,” said Jacob sullenly.

 Which meant Charlie had told Billy. I would have to make sure Charlie knew that wasn’t allowed to happen again. I stifled a sigh.

 “Well, why didn’t you return any of my calls when I was trying to talk to you before?” I asked accusingly.

 “Don’t you want to be with the Cullens?” he spat bitterly. “I thought you wanted to be one of them.”

 “Of course I do! Nothing will change that, Jacob. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you!”

 He stared at me. “I can’t be friends with you if you’re going to be a vampire, Bella.”

 That cut deep. I turned away my head so that Jacob wouldn’t see that I was fighting tears. “Then why did you come to see me at all?” I asked, hating the quaver in my voice.

 “Because I heard you were in the hospital, Bella!” he shouted. “I had to see if you were okay!”

 “Well, I’m _fine_ ,” I said with a sniff. “So you can go back to hating me.”

 His face hardened. “I had to make sure the Cullens hadn’t broken the treaty too,” he growled.

 I felt betrayed. “You just said -”

 “I said I didn’t come to _talk_ about the treaty,” said Jacob. “I didn’t say the treaty has _nothing_ to do with why I’m here.”

 I scowled. “Well, I’m still human,” I said crossly. “I’m under house arrest too - thanks for that, by the way. Are you happy?”

 Jacob sighed. “Look, I’m sorry about getting you in trouble,” he said sullenly. “More trouble, I mean, ‘cause you said you were already grounded -” Abruptly he stopped and scowled back toward the curtain. “Seriously? I thought we had five minutes.”

 But it was Carlisle, who stepped around the curtain first, though Charlie and Edward followed closely. “I'm sorry,” he said politely. “I need to draw a blood sample, if Bella doesn't mind.”

 Still scowling, Jacob withdrew to the corner. He threw Edward a dark look behind Charlie’s back; Edward’s eyebrow lifted rather scornfully. Alice, who still seemed to be on pins and needles with some trouble of her own, noticed and rolled her eyes.

 Even though I was still trying to be angry at him, it still hurt to watch Jacob and Edward at odds.

 I also felt guilty for not being kinder, because after all Jake was my best friend and I hadn’t seen him for two weeks; in fact, even the topic of drawing blood was very quickly becoming a welcome distraction.

 I looked resolutely up at Carlisle, who smiled apologetically down at me. “If you’re ready, Bella,” he said.

 I grimaced and turned my head away. “Go ahead.”

 But the needle never pricked my arm. I felt Carlisle swab it with alcohol and then carefully grip my arm with one hand, but the needle never touched me. I actually felt Carlisle’s other hand stop right where it should have for the needle to go in, but it never moved.

 Then Carlisle gasped. “What on earth?!” he said in what had to be genuine surprise.

 "What the _hell?_ ” cried Charlie and Jacob nearly together.

 “Impossible. . .” breathed Edward.

 Cautiously, I turned my head to look back at what was going on.

 Carlisle was holding the needle with the tip almost touching my wrist, and seemed to be trying to push it in without success. On my arm was a tiny purplish sphere of light surrounding the point of the needle. It disappeared when Carlisle lifted the needle, and reappeared when he tried to prick me again. Charlie was leaning forward, eyes wide as saucers; Jacob was staring with his jaw hanging; Edward and Alice were communicating silently with each other, Edward’s lips moving swiftly and soundlessly.

 “I can’t seem to penetrate your skin,” said Carlisle. “Whatever energy is surrounding your body also appears to be - well, to be _protecting_ it. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen or heard before.”

 “So you’re saying you can’t poke me with a needle?” I asked hopefully.

 Charlie gaped at me in disbelief. Edward’s topaz eyes rolled up toward the ceiling and he appeared to pray for patience. Alice just shook her head. “Oh, _Bella,_ ” she said.

 “Seriously, Bella!” cried Jacob, flinging up his hands. “There could be, like, an _invisible energy barrier_ surrounding you that _nobody’s ever heard of before_ and your first question is whether someone can _poke you with a needle_? This is, like, Avengers kind of stuff -”

 Carlisle’s eyes widened. “The index. . .” he murmured. “SHIELD’s gifted index never claimed to be complete. . .but still, the circumstances through which the powered individuals attained their gifts. . .”

Charlie looked hard at Carlisle. “You saying my daughter’s some kind of gifted or enhanced?”


	2. Reaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What the hell is wrong with Bella?

I laughed. "Dad, do you even hear yourself? Me, some kind of special person with superpowers?"

But neither Charlie nor Carlisle were listening to me. "Chief Swan," said Carlisle. "Can you tell me as exactly as possible when the change occurred?"

Charlie scrunched up his brow. "Well, it was in the morning during breakfast, so it would have to have been before seven-thirty AM -"

"Hey, hold on!" I broke in. "The fish oil! I'd just taken one of the new fish oil vitamins before the black goo started growing all over me."

Charlie's head snapped around for a moment to look at me.

"If you wouldn't mind -" began Carlisle.

"Sure thing," said Charlie, and he vanished in record time.

" _Bella!_ " Alice exploded as soon as he was gone. "You _disappeared!_ Again!"

"So that's why _you're_ here," muttered Jacob, though I knew that if I could hear him he had every intention of being heard.

"I did?" I asked, rather troubled. The last time Alice had lost me. . .

"I saw you take those vitamins, and then you disappeared completely!" Alice fretted. "I couldn't stop Edward - he was gone to see what had happened before I could think to say anything -"

"Of course I had to know what had happened to you," said Edward as if such a foreign concept as him being concerned about me ought to be obvious.

Jacob gagged derisively. No one paid any attention to him.

"And he came back and said nothing was wrong, at least as far as he knew," Alice went on. "There weren't even any mutts in the area."

"You know you might be surprised to hear this," said Jacob. "We actually don't make a habit of going places where we're not invited."

"Not from what I've seen," said Edward, raising his eyebrows.

"Please," said Carlisle. "May we return to the subject at hand? Alice still can't see you, Bella."

"Not only that," continued Alice. "I can't see anything around you either! It's exactly like looking for one of the wolves - I can't see you or anyone that goes near you. I can't see _anything_ right now."

"She's cross because she has a headache," said Edward.

"Your kind get headaches?" asked Jacob surprised.

"We are talking about Bella," said Carlisle. "Your scent has changed too - it's unlike any human scent I know."

"No, Jacob, it's not just you," said Edward at once. "We all noticed it."

"Quit it," growled Jacob.

"And none of our machines can get a read on you, as you know," said Carlisle. "Your heart rate is between three and four times higher than it should be. And now this!" He gestured to the needle.

I shook my head - the whole conversation was going way too fast for me. "Okay, what does all this add up to?" I asked. "My heart's beating too fast, you can't get any kind of a read on me, I smell different, Alice can't see me, there's some kind of energy barrier all over me, and I glow purple when you try to stick me with a needle."

But even as I said it all out loud, it was impossible to ignore - it didn't add up to anything I could figure out, but all together it had to mean something.

I was a freak. I'd always instinctively known it, but now there was scientific evidence to prove it.

"It sounds like I need to try to examine your DNA," said Carlisle. "That rarely gives answers, but it's something. It seems I can't draw any blood; I'll need a saliva sample. The fish oil vitamins you took may also yield some results. In the meantime, I can't find anything wrong with you, so as soon as your father arrives you're free to go."

"But you can't find anything, period," grumbled Jacob.

"Carlisle, is there nothing more you can find?" asked Edward.

"Not for now," said Carlisle.

"So I can go back to school tomorrow?" I asked.

"I don't see why not," said Carlisle. "I'll let you know when I've found something."

So after Carlisle went poking around inside my mouth with a Q-tip, he released me. Edward and Alice didn't want to let me out of their sight, but Carlisle reproved them gently. "We've learned that it's not always a crisis if Alice can't find someone," he said.

Jacob seemed to have settled back into sullenness, and walked off without a word once Charlie got mack. The kiss that I'd shared with Edward probably had something to do with that; clearly I would have to do something to rectify Jacob's obvious loneliness.

Carlisle told Charlie everything he'd told me, with the promise that he would tell Charlie if a search of my DNA and the vitamins revealed anything.

Charlie drove me home, shooting glances at me all the while, and refused to go anywhere all that day. I fled to my room with the excuse of doing homework, but every hour or so Charlie kept on coming up to check on me. He even tried to offer to cook for me, but I quickly set his mind at ease about that.

"No, Dad, I've got it," I told him as I went down to the kitchen. He hung around for about five minutes and then retreated to the living room, much to my relief. Dinner was full of awkward silence and furtive glances until at last I just got up to begin cleanup. Charlie did insist on helping me wash the dishes, but after that I holed up in my room again.

That night I pressed Edward hard, trying to pick his brain about what Carlisle had found out so far. He tried to distract me at first, but at last admitted that Carlisle's search of the vitamins had yielded something he was completely unfamiliar with and was still studying hard. My saliva was currently being sent to Portland, where the resources to get a scan were actually available, and it would be another two weeks before the results would come back.

And Alice still couldn't see me; she was still anxious, but now was more puzzled and irritated, especially now that her headache returned every time she tried to look for me.

"It just doesn't seem _right_ ," I sighed. "All this fuss over me, like I'm special or something."

Edward raised his eyebrows. "I think we've just seen proof that you _are_ special, Bella," said Edward.

"What we've seen is proof that I'm a freak," I grumbled. "A fact that's already perfectly well established."

But just how much of a freak I really was had yet to be seen.

It was the Monday after my initial hospital stay, and I was dicing the chicken for a casserole for dinner when I dropped the knife, and watched almost in slow motion as it tumbled toward my bare foot. But just as it reached my foot, a faint reddish-purple glow surrounded its outline on my skin for an instant and the knife actually bounced to the side.

Charlie heard the knife clatter to the floor, and rocketed into the kitchen just in time to see me pick the knife back up. "I'm fine," I said quickly.

"You sure?" he asked doubtfully.

"Yeah," I said, and after a few seconds of anxious staring Charlie went back into the living room.

I glanced into the living room to make sure he didn't see what I was about to do, and once the game he was watching had played for a solid five minutes, I bent down and picked up the knife. Then I stabbed at my own arm.

The blade grazed my sleeve, but I felt something resist me before it touched my flesh - almost as if I'd slammed the knife into a wall. Just as before, my arm glowed purple (over my sleeve) around the blade of the knife and the knife was knocked backward without ever touching me.

I stared at the knife. Whatever was wrong with me, I began to hope that it wouldn't get fixed any time soon.

That night I asked Edward if I still smelled funny. He winced at my terminology, but admitted that my scent had not yet returned to normal. "I can hardly smell your blood at all - that sounds macabre," he said. "Maybe whatever energy is blanketing you is also masking your scent."

During that first school week after the incident I went on with my life as if nothing was wrong. I went back to school, of course, and I was technically still grounded though Charlie didn't say anything about it. At first felt a little unwell, as if my body was trying to acclimate itself to some kind of radical change; but even when I felt better the feel of that strange blanket of energy surrounding my body never went away.

When I tripped for the first time, I instinctively felt that something was missing. I couldn't figure out what it was until I suddenly realized that it hadn't hurt at all; in fact, I had barely even felt the impact of hitting the ground. What was more, over the next few days when I would trip over or bang into anything it just _didn't hurt_ \- I practically didn't even feel it.

At school, the news had of course gotten around that I had made all the hospital systems malfuction and that I had to have my DNA sent up to Portland to be examined by experts. Which meant that everybody stared and whispered just like I was the new girl all over again, with the main exceptions of Jessica and Angela. Jessica at least plied me directly about what was going on with me at the hospital, while Angela wanted to make sure I was okay.

And for the first few days, the Cullens had nothing to tell me. Apparently no one would have any answers until the DNA test results were finished. Even Alice wouldn't be able to tell anything until someone at the lab actually got around to looking at my DNA.

But the worst shock of all came that Friday.

I was driving home from school, and had bent over to pick through my purse when I suddenly heard what sounded like three car horns blaring at me at the same time. I looked up in alarm, and then watched in horror as my truck plowed full-speed off the road and straight into a large telephone pole standing at the corner of the intersection.

Before there was time to think, I had slammed straight into the pole.

I heard a deafening crash, saw the insides of the truck crumple around me, and felt a terrible jerk that threw my head backward. There was also a strange, warm sensation all over my body, and a flash of purple light enveloped me. But the impact of the crash itself never came.

I leaned back in my seat, gasping, staring at the wreckage around me. Then, shaking all over, I climbed out of the mangled wreck and felt myself all over. I was _completely_ unharmed - there wasn't so much as a _bruise_ on me.

I turned and stared at my truck. It was little more than a twisted heap of metal crumpled around the base of the pole, which had fallen forward and crushed the top of the truck.

It was clearly the sort of accident I should not have walked away from at all, much less walk away entirely unscathed, as if I were a vampire. And how well I knew that I was no vampire.

So what _was_ I? Was I still human? And if not . . . well, I still wasn't ready to face that possibility.

So instead I turned to the question of what to do. I didn't want Charlie knowing there might be anything unusual about me, so I somehow needed to let him know I couldn't drive home without letting him know the full extent of the damage to my car. Of course, I reflected wryly, those were things the Cullens undoubtedly were well-versed in. . .

. . .too late. The two cars behind me had belonged to Angela Weber and to June Richardson. They had both braked and jumped out of their cars, June already on her cell phone calling 911.

"Bella!" Angela ran up to me. "Bella, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said automatically. "I think my truck might need more than a new paint job, though."

Angela looked at me in disbelief. "Bella, you _collided head-on with a telephone pole!_ " she cried.

I opened my mouth and shut it again, having no words to explain myself. "Hey, you don't have to call the ambulance," I said weakly. "Nothing happened -"

"Bella," said Angela. "You have to go to the hospital - you just had a crash!"

Despite all my protests, the ambulance arrived shockingly quickly - I guessed they didn't get too many calls out here in Forks. Of course once they saw the damage to my truck and heard what Angela and June said, they were more shocked than ever to find that nothing appeared to be wrong with me - no broken bones or head trauma or internal bleeding or bruising. They checked me repeatedly when they drove me in, but because none of their monitors worked on me all they could do was take my temperature and measure my heartbeat.

When Carlisle came in he gave me a rather wry smile. "Hello, Bella," he said.

"Hello, Carlisle," I said.

"I hear you collided head-on with a telephone pole, completely totaled your truck, and walked away without so much as a scratch," said Carlisle.

"The tales they tell," I said rather lamely, for of course I couldn't deny anything.

"Well, we may need to keep you overnight, because you've had an accident -" began Carlisle.

I groaned, and Carlisle held up his hand. "Bella, you have to understand," he said. "What's happened to you is something no one here has ever seen before, myself included. We'd really like to - oh, hello, Chief Swan, do come in."

Charlie marched into the room. "I'm seriously debating ever letting you out of the house again," he said to me.

I laughed weakly. "Sorry, Dad."

He plopped wearily down into a chair. "I'm just glad you're okay, Bells," he said. "Just don't make a habit out of this, okay?"

"I'll do my best," I said. "I think I trashed my truck, though."

But this time, with no way to even give me a shot, the hospital couldn't find an excuse to keep me longer than a couple of hours. Edward and Jessica and Angela and two or three other people from school were the only ones who managed to drop by and see me before I was released.

Later that day, when Edward came to the house, Charlie asked him tentatively if Carlisle had found anything in studying the vitamins. I began to hope that he would begin to be more cooperative in days to come when it came to me and Edward.

Edward unfortunately had nothing new to tell, except that Carlisle had managed to find something definitely foreign in the capsules. But he wasn't at all sure what it was or if it could have anything to do with my . . . condition.

Later on when we had a degree of privacy, he shook his head. "A car accident," he said.

I groaned. "Edward, I'm _fine_."

"That's just it," said Edward. "You completely destroyed the old piece of junk you called your _truck_ -"

"Oh, so we're insulting my truck now -"

"- and walked out complaining about having to go to the hospital," Edward finished. "Bella, I know you aren't going to be happy to hear this, but you're about to be the talk of the medical community."

"My worst fears realized," I said grimly.

The next day, a Saturday, Jacob called. Because our phone didn't have caller ID, I had to pick up and say, "Hello, Swan residence," I said.

There was a long pause. "Bella?" said the all-too-familiar voice.

"Jacob?!" I cried.

"Yeah, it's me," said Jacob heavily. "You're not still mad at me, are you?"

I had wasted far too much energy trying to be mad at Jacob. But I couldn't find that anger now that he seemed to want to talk to me.

Because I had _missed_ him.

I gave a weak, rather shaky laugh. "No, Jake."

"Because Dad said you were in the hospital _again_ , and I didn't get to come see you before they let you go," said Jacob.

I groaned. "Please tell me you weren't going to come visit me!"

"Well yeah, I was, because _that's what you do when your friend is in the hospital!_ " said Jacob. "I bet you let your precious Cullens visit you!"

I scowled, as if Jacob could see my face. "I can't _stop_ them from visiting me," I snapped. "And if you can't be civil about the Cullen's, maybe I don't count as a friend anymore!"

And Jacob hung up on me with a loud click.

Tears filled my eyes as I put the phone on its base. I hadn't meant it literally; Jacob seemed to think I had.

Now he had every reason to hate me.

But then the phone rang again, and I picked up eagerly, hoping Jacob had called back. "Jake?" I said hopefully.

"Not quite, Bella," said Carlisle Cullen. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting anything -"

"No, no, it's fine," I said. "What did you call about?"

"Alice has just seen the test results," said Carlisle. "You're not going to believe what they are."

I caught my breath. "Well?"


	3. Disadvantage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bella has some time to catch her breath.

"Bella," said Carlisle. "We're not sure if you're human anymore."

"Wait, what?" I asked. "What do you mean, you don't know if I'm human? What kind of results are we talking about?"

Charlie had come into the kitchen by this time and was listening intently.

"I can't be sure until I have the chance to study them myself," said Carlisle. "But it looks like your DNA, while still your own unique pattern, has been altered on a molecular level - it appears to be packed with macro-molecules I've never seen before. Bella, if Alice drew the diagrams correctly as I'm sure she did, every cell in your body seems to have changed - every molecule, every atom."

"So I'm a freak," I confirmed.

"Bella, please just listen," said Carlisle. "If these test results are anything like what they're shaping up to be, you may well be something entirely un-human."

And that was when the actual impact of his words hit me like a wrecking ball. _This_ was different.

" _Oh_ \- okay," I sucked in my breath. "what does that mean to me now?"

"It means," said Carlisle. "that you may need to prepare for being the state of Washington's newest celebrity. After sending your DNA up to Portland there was no way to keep this quiet. I'm sorry, Bella."

The remaining week until Carlisle got the test results back (more than that in reality because they didn't actually arrive until the following Monday) was not quite as bad as I'd feared. True, even my teachers stared at me as if it were my first day at school again, and even my hanging around the Cullens didn't stem the interest of my most determined classmates, but I had lived through all that before and could do it again.

My poor old truck just couldn't be salvaged - once Jacob had sighed over it and shaken his head, it was official. "You really did a number on this one, Bella," he'd said. "I'm not even sure how many parts I can get out of it."

So the first day, Monday, I had no choice - Charlie adjusted his normal hours and drove me to school in the police cruiser. I would rather have found a hole to crawl into, but I had no other way to get to school. As if everyone didn't already have ample excuse to stare at me. Ugh. Fortunately I persuaded him that he didn't have to come and get me for work and the drive home - there were plenty of very willing candidates with whom I could get a ride.

The following days one Cullen or other took turns (never Edward, he was too smart for that) to come and spare me the embarrassment of having to appear at school in a police cruiser again by driving me themselves. Charlie wasn't _too_ happy about this, but Emmett was actually very friendly, Alice was irresistible as ever (meaning you literally _couldn't_ resist her), and Jasper's gift made way for him.

Rosalie took her turn last, unsmiling, and that car ride was _very_ silent.

Of course Newton's Olympic Outfitters got a bit more traffic than usual, because plenty of adults could go there to try to get a peek at me. I took to doing a lot of shelf-stocking and inventory and generally hiding in the aisles and in the back, avoiding the cash register at all costs. But of course that couldn't always be helped either, and I had to fend off many a "concerned" (interested) inquiry about my (conspicuous lack of) injuries and had Carlisle had said anything new and oh, _do_ give me a call when you hear anything, dear.

What was perhaps not so bearable was Jacob's half-resentful, half-desperate visits when I finally allowed them (Charlie had no problem with his coming over now, even though I was still grounded). He was still Jacob, but the cloud cover never seemed to lift fully from my former personal sun. He tried hard to avoid the topic of the Cullens, particularly Edward, but the resentment was always there, and I felt it.

One of the ways I tried to combat this was with more recklessness - Jacob was very curious about what Carlisle was calling the "energy blanket" enveloping me that seemed to protect me from car crashes. When we were sure Charlie wasn't watching, Jacob and I would punch back and forth, which was much more fun (for me) now that punching him didn't hurt. Whenever Jacob punched me, flashes of purple light sparked under his fists and sometimes he would yell in pain and shake his hand.

Edward was equally curious. He still didn't seem to be able to smell my blood, which he said was actually a relief - "It's much easier for me to be around you now that you're not so mouth-watering!" Which worried me deep down because I'd always considered the appealing smell of my blood part of what little appeal I did hold for him - how could anyone so perfect as Edward truly be drawn to someone so very ordinary as myself? It just didn't make sense.

Once I even joked about it. "So I guess I'm that much less appealing, huh?"

But, inexplicably as ever, Edward shook his head. "Bella, don't you understand?" he said. "My greatest fear in being with you - the fear that I might commit the unforgivable crime of hurting you - is _gone_. And coupled with the possibility that you can't be hurt physically - you have no idea how _happy_ that makes me!"

On Saturday, Charlie and I both took the day off and he took me up to Port Angeles to get a car. It was a necessity that didn't take long; I didn't have the money for anything but a basic set of four wheels that would get me from Point A to Point B, and I wasn't about to let Charlie just buy this one. Charlie insisted on pitching in, reminding me that college was on the horizon (so far as he knew, anyway), and on that note I gave in and let him pay a third of the cost of a plain, solid little Toyota that I drove home that evening.

The next day Carlisle finally got the test results back. At school, Edward was practically brimming with excitement - Edward, who was normally fairly stoic. Even Alice seemed more cheerful than usual, which meant that Jasper looked much more comfortable than was usual for him. Even Rosalie was not quite so unfriendly as she normally was, and as for Emmett - he was enjoying the whole thing thoroughly.

"Hey, Supergirl!" he said merrily when I joined the Cullens at lunch.

I rolled my eyes. "Not Supergirl, Emmett," I said. "Supergirl can fly."

"What, you haven't tried?" asked Emmett.

I ignored him and sat down. "So Carlisle got the results back today," I prompted.

Emmett leaned back, and Edward sat forward.

"You'd better eat while he talks," said Jasper amusedly.

Edward didn't even roll his eyes. "It's even more extraordinary than what Carlisle told you earlier," he said. "Carlisle doesn't recognize the new macro-molecules in your DNA at all, but that's nothing you didn't already know. He believes he's found a definite link between the singular element in the vitamins and the weird patterns in your DNA. He says he can't be sure, because there's no way of examining your DNA as it was before the incident, but he believes that whatever was in that fish oil didn't _change_ you so much as it awakened something already dormant in your genes."

"So you're saying Carlisle thinks that I already had something foreign or mutant in my DNA, and that the fish oil just woke it up?" I asked.

"More than that," said Edward. "He also thinks your new abilities are connected with the reason I can't hear your thoughts. He says that the energy field currently blanketing your body is probably an extension of a more limited barrier that before surrounded your mind exclusively. Which would explain why Aro also couldn't read your mind, and possibly why Jane couldn't hurt you."

I turned away from thoughts of the Volturi. "But that doesn't make any sense," I said. "If there's really some kind of barrier around my brain, then why can Alice still see my future and why can Jasper can mess with my mood?"

"I don't know," Edward admitted. "Neither does Carlisle. All that he does know with some certainty is that whatever it is, it's likely permanent."

"So I'm stuck with it?" I asked.

"Yeah, you're stuck with being kind of physically invulnerable," said Emmett, spreading his hands. "I mean, come on, who can claim that?"

"Not Supergirl indeed," said Rosalie in what I knew perfectly well was not an undertone, simply by virtue of the fact that I _could_ hear it at all.

"Bella," said Edward. "this _is_ practically unheard-of. Why aren't you more excited about it?"

I shrugged. "I guess it just hasn't sunk in yet."

Truthfully, I still wasn't mentally ready to accept it - a lifetime of insecurities made it impossible for me to fully believe there could ever be anything inherently un-repulsive about me, much less that I was actually _special_ in any way.

"Bella, you've crawled out of the ruins of a collision with a telephone pole that left your truck un-drivable without so much as a scrape," said Alice. "What will it take to get it to sink in?"

Carlisle, of course, did the right thing and called Charlie, who actually _invited Carlisle to the house_ along with Edward to discuss the test results. He sat patiently as Carlisle explained in more detail what Edward had explained in brief earlier. Most of what he said about the macro-molecules in my DNA and how it differed from ordinary human DNA flew right over my head, and Charlie's too, to judge from the look on his face; but when he got into the realm of the fish oil and the connection it seemed to have to my condition, Charlie seemed to wake up.

"So you're saying this is some kind of weird alien gene she's had all along that the vitamins just activated?" he asked incredulously.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I believe so," said Carlisle. "I also think it's a distinct possibility that these genes are hereditary - passed on either from you or from her mother."

This took me completely off guard. "What?!" I cried. It was one thing to hear that I had weird mutant genes - I'd always suspected something of the kind. But the idea that either my mom or Charlie had given me those mutant genes was nothing short of impossible, because whatever they were, my parents _weren't_ freak mutants. They just _weren't_.

"Must've come from her mother," said Charlie.

"Chief Swan, we don't know that for certain until we see both your DNA and Mrs. Dwyer's," said Carlisle seriously. "Which is why I'm going to ask each of you for a blood sample."

Charlie and I exchanged glances. We hadn't told Mom about any of what had happened to me, mostly because we weren't sure how she was going to take it. Edward blinked at me, probably having heard this from Charlie's thoughts.

"We'll talk to Mom about it," I said.

"In the meantime, you're welcome to a blood sample of mine, if you really want one," said Charlie with a shrug.

"Then please drop by the hospital some time tomorrow," said Carlisle. "And please see that Mrs. Dwyer knows what's going on and can get a sample to me as soon as possible."

Later that evening, just when I was heading up the stairs to bed (and to Edward) Charlie called, "Hey, Bella?"

I paused and half turned, trying to mask my annoyance. "Yes, Dad?"

"Well," he paused, and frowned at the bannister by my hand. "You know, you've been behaving pretty well - haven't heard one whine out of you, which is great - plus, you know, you've kind of had a couple of near-death experiences in the past week and a half -"

My eyebrows were climbing in spite of themselves, and surprise mixed with humor was replacing my annoyance. Charlie was _rambling_. I almost wished I had a video camera just to record the moment permanently.

"C'mon, Dad," I said. "Just say it. You're killin' yourself."

"Okay," said Charlie, his eye gleaming at me as he looked up. "Let's just say I've been thinking, you know, maybe we could kind of relax the grounding a little . . . you know, try letting you out on parole?"

This took a full five seconds to sink in. "Wait, really?" I cried incredulously. "You're lightening up on me?"

Charlie couldn't seem to stop smiling. "I've been watching you, Bells," he said. "You've started showing some interest in - in friends of yours aside from your boyfriend."

The smile that had been growing on my face wavered. I should have known there was going to be a catch - he had said _parole._ "And?"

"And the one thing I'd really like from you while you're, uh, on parole is to, you know, keep up that pattern," said Charlie. "Keep making contact with your other friends, keep things balanced."

Well now. That wasn't so hard. I could endure a little more of Jessica's company than I'd already been enduring if hearing about it would make Charlie happy, and as for Angela, sometimes her company was just a breath of fresh air - no worries about eternity and doom and the alter-natural. Well, unless Thor counted as alter-natural. Angela's television crush on Thor put her boyfriend Ben's worship of Captain America to shame.

Come to think of it, after what had happened in Sokovia with Ultron (proving that there were still Avengers even after SHIELD's fall), even Lauren became tolerable when the conversation at lunch turned to "whose arms are better, Thor or Cap, don't knock Stark either, the Hulk doesn't count, and did you _see_ the Falcon recently?"

"So, balance," I said. "That's the condition?"

"That's the condition," said Charlie.

There was a moment of silence as I hoped I wouldn't have to say 'thank you' and Charlie probably hoped he wouldn't have to say 'you're welcome.'

"Goodnight," I said in rather a hurry, and hurried upstairs.

That night Edward was pensive. "It occurred to me today," he said. "Depending on how the energy barrier protecting you works, maybe Jacob Black doesn't have to worry about the treaty."

I stiffened involuntarily, my heart seeming to stop. "What do you mean?" I asked as if I couldn't guess.

"Well," said Edward. "If a vampire's teeth can't pierce you, then there's no danger of our violating the terms of the treaty."

I groaned and buried my face in my hands. "Of course," I said bitterly. "Why am I not surprised that the universe would conspire to keep me from the one thing that I want more than anything?"

"Oh, _Bella_ ," sighed Edward. "Why can't you see what a wonderful thing this is? You, invulnerable to harm, without ever being tainted by this life, no, this _existence_ , as a monster like me? Nothing could be more right and perfect!"

Despair engulfed me like a tidal wave. "I knew it," I said aloud. "I knew it was too much to hope that I would ever be close to good enough for you."

Edward became almost fierce. "Bella, you are already perfect," he said. "Perfect in every respect. I'm the one pathetically unworthy of you."

Of course there was no use in telling him how utterly backward _that_ was, as I knew by now. It still made no sense how the most perfect person in the world could be so wrong about his own inherent value and my lack thereof, but I knew perfectly well that he would never see sense.

Then, suddenly, I saw the obvious silver lining. "Well," I said brightly. "If the deal's off, and I can't be changed, at the very least that I won't have to worry about _getting married_."

Edward's sigh was as deep as the sea and nearly as blue. It seemed a re-negotiation would be in order at some point.


End file.
